Contrapositive
by chasingafterstarlight
Summary: It was odd that he was getting so flustered about this; just ten minutes ago he had been nearly convinced that he was completely over Jade. And now he could barely string together a coherent sentence as he stared at the intimidating girl. / Or, the real aftermath of Opposite Date. Beck/Jade.


_Contrapositive_

Jade/Beck, continuation of Opposite Date

/

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Tori spoke.

"So, your... aunt's dog," Tori said lamely, holding up the medicine. "Wanna go apply medicine to the affected area?"

"Gross," Jade cut in, arms crossed as she stared at the ground uncomfortably.

In a wave of sympathy, or perhaps insanity (either way, he was screwed), Beck offered lamely, "You could come, Jade. With me and Tori. I mean, you could bring Cat and all. I know it's late, but..." It was odd that he was getting so flustered about this; just ten minutes ago he had been nearly convinced that he was completely over Jade. And now he could barely string together a coherent sentence as he stared at the intimidating girl.

"Oh." Jade shrugged. "Well, I guess now that we've busted your not-date, we haven't really got anything better to do. So... sure. I guess."

For some reason, Beck's mouth curved up into a smile at her response. The sudden wave of happiness that crashed over him was inexplicable, yet a part of him demanded that it was completely reasonable. He ignored it and glanced around at the three girls. "So let's go, then."

/

It was odd to have Jade West sitting on his bed again. Very weird, in fact.

He'd thought it best not to take a bunch of strangers over to his aunt's house (she got easily stressed out), so he'd suggested that they all head over to the RV like old times and he'd take the dog over to his aunt's tomorrow. So they'd all driven over, and just like old times, Jade had reflexively headed straight for his bed. No one else seemed to think it weird but him.

Cat had taken great pleasure in spreading the ointment all over the 'affected areas', much to the chagrin of the rest of them. Tori sat down on the floor beside Cat, making grossed out faces. And Beck? Beck just stood awkwardly to the side, hands shoved in his pockets, watching the rest of them.

"Oliver," Jade called after a few minutes, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "Aren't you going to help ointment your aunt's dog? Oh, right, I forgot. You're too scared to get your hands dirty."

Absently, he glanced up at her. For once, her biting remark seemed more teasing than insulting, and he gave a small chuckle. "Right, because you're totally doing the dirty work."

"Not my dog," Jade shot back at once.

"So?"

Tori cleared her throat, alerting him back to the fact that there were actually other people in the room. A heat spread over his cheeks – had he really been that concentrated on Jade? – and glanced over at her as she said, "So why don't you both just help?"

They exchanged a quick glance before Jade slipped off his bed and onto the floor, pulling up the sleeves of her black shirt and plopping down beside Cat. Beck, of course, had no choice but to sit beside her and spread the ointment all over his hands. In an obvious attempt to one-up him, Jade started rubbing her hands on the 'affected area', causing the dog to let out a low howl.

"Muffin doesn't like you," Beck informed Jade with a smirk.

"Right," Jade replied sarcastically. "This obviously has nothing to do with the fact that I'm rubbing ointment all over... him." She made a face. "Besides, I'd like to see you do better."

"Maybe I will," Beck retorted arrogantly, leaning over to spread the lotion and one-up Jade. It didn't exactly work out, though, because the dog growled at him.

Jade snickered, much to Beck's chagrin. He glared over at her, but she just shrugged. "It's not my fault that dogs hate you and your kinfolk."

"Maybe you need this ointment for your heart," he informed her, holding the tube of ointment over to her.

"Oh yeah?" Jade raised an eyebrow, and just from the look in her eye, he knew something was up. An evil glint in her eyes, she leaned forward and smeared the ointment on her hand all over Beck's forehead. With an innocent smile, she retorted, "I figured you'd need the ointment for your face. You've been looking kinda... ugly lately."

"Really?" Beck deadpanned, wiping the ointment all over her cheek with a sudden motion. "You think so?" He poked her nose, leaving a big dab of ointment there. Somehow, goofing off with Jade felt normal, _right_, despite the fact that they'd done nothing but legitimately fight over the past few months. It seemed that _they_ were going to be a hard habit to break.

Jade laughed – actually _laughed_, not an evil laugh, just a normal laugh – and smeared it on top of his head. "Hope that comes out," she told him with a devious grin.

"Okay, look here, _Jadelyn _–" Beck began, but he was cut off by Cat.

"Um, you guys are... wasting the lotion..." Cat said with a small frown. Suddenly, he realized that Cat and Tori had been carefully observing the whole display, their mouths forming small "o" shapes to display their surprise.

"Look, you guys obviously..." Tori began, but she trailed off. "I mean, I'm gonna take Cat home, okay? I'll... text you guys tomorrow..."

Jade, who, ironically enough, seemed to be the only one who hadn't been affected by the whole debacle, raised an eyebrow at Tori. "You guys don't have a car."

"It's not that far a walk," Tori said hastily, jumping to her feet and slipping her elbow around Cat's. "Come on, Cat; let's go."

"Can I sleep over?" Cat yelped as the two girls walked out the door, leaving Beck and Jade alone for the first time in what felt like ages. This, Beck decided, was even weirder, considering the last time they'd been alone in Beck's RV was...

"You've got lotion in your hair," Jade said, breaking the silence.

"Really now?" Beck questioned, running a hand through his hair. "Wonder how that got there."

The dog was asleep at this point, much to Beck's relief. He sighed, stroking the dog's back and giving her a small smile that she slowly returned. At last, she spoke again. "I'm... I mean, I'm sorry for interrupting your, um, date with Tori or whatever. You know."

"It wasn't a date," he told her slowly. "Do you see how bad I look? I mean, I wouldn't go on a _date_ like this, would I?"

"You need a haircut," Jade informed him, leaning back against his bed. "But, I mean, you don't look _that bad_."

Coming from her, it was practically the epitome of compliments, and he was lost for words again. Instead of answering, he chose to drink her in, since tonight was practically the first time he'd been allowed to look at her. She looked casually beautiful, even with the 'dorky' turtleneck she was wearing, especially with the rare smile on her face.

Slowly, the girl got to her feet and walked over so that she was staring in front of him. His breath caught in his throat.

"You know, Jade," he said, staring at her the way he often caught himself doing, like she was the only thing that mattered, "I didn't answer their question – you know which one – because it's mean. But when it comes down to it, we all know the answer."

"Yeah," Jade said sarcastically, staring at the ground. "_Vega_."

"You," he managed before leaning forward to press his lips against hers urgently. At once, she responded, her hands slipping back into this hair, and an ineffable feeling flowed through his veins as he tugged her closer. There was something about this, about her, about being so close to her, that made him crazy. His arms slipped around her body gently, and she leaned back to catch her breath before kissing him all over again.

They went on like this for a while, and surprisingly, Jade was the first to pull away. She stared at him, her orbs of green-blue wide as saucers. "I can't do this," she got out at last. "I just... can't."

He wasn't sure what she couldn't do exactly – be with him? Kiss him? But he never got the chance to find out, because she gathered up her stuff and dashed out the door, looking more like a scared kitten than a vicious cat. Once again, he watched her go, not knowing what to say or do to get her to stay, or if he even wanted her to. He stood at the door, wondering how in the world he'd just let her go for a second time.

It wasn't that he didn't love her. That, in fact, was becoming more obvious as time went on instead of fading away. It was just that he wasn't sure how to handle still being in love with his ex-girlfriend who was moving on as his feelings got stronger.

Slowly, he retreated back into his room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Maybe they were right. Maybe he was running from his feelings. And, more importantly, maybe he was running from Jade.

Maybe it was time for him to fight.

/

A/N: Yeah, hi. Actually I enjoyed Opposite Date. Surprise, surprise, considering the fact that it's the first episode I've actually rewatched in a LONG time. But I felt like something was missing. And so I wrote this.

By the way, I found 'contrapositive' while looking up synonyms for opposite. It means "A proposition derived by negating and permuting the terms of another, equivalent proposition". Reminded me of Bade, so.

Please leave a review if you've got a moment and don't favorite without reviewing; thank you!


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